I posted some pictures on Facebook* today of my old cars, and Caitlin reminded me of the story of when I took her for a drive in my old Manta Mirage right before I sold it (back in 2000 I think). The doors were opened by solenoids (so you pushed a button to pop the latch, and then pushed them up), but the one on the passenger side had a blown fuse and didn’t work. It had to be manually opened by reaching inside the door and pulling the cable that attached to the latch.
Anyway, we were just driving around the block. The car was running a little rich, and with straight headers coming off the engine and no real exhaust system, it blew flames out the back when you gunned it. At the stop sign just before my house, the entire rear section of the car became temporarily engulfed in fire — this was more than a little scary because there was a fuel tank sitting next to each occupant (right below the doors). I hopped out, but Caitlin was trapped inside the burning car, so I had to run around to her side, tear the interior panel off the inside of her door, and pop it open so she could escape. I didn’t have a fire extinguisher in the car, so I had to dash to the house and grab one, but luckily by the time I got back the fire was out and no damage had occurred… Definitely a story that could have turned out very differently!!!
* Since the new owner of BME chose to delete my “glider” account from the IAM community and redirect all old links to me to themselves and ban me from taking part in the conversations in ModBlog and so on, I ended up finally adding myself to Facebook to get my community-site fix, after having resisted it for ages. I have quite a few friend requests from names I don’t instantly recognize, so if you add me, could you please include a note about how we know each other (or even your old IAM name if I’ll recognize it better).
10 Comments
Ok, you’re close but that’s not what really happened: When we got to the corner of Bathurst and the nearest street South, you said “whoa, the car’s on fire, get out” and I said “I CAN’T” so you did help me escape, but you made ME run to the house to fetch a fire extinguisher. And by the time I found it in your untidy house, you’d driven home and declared the fire no big deal.
No big deal, but I never went into that car again and you sold it right after.
:P
I’m sure that with the exhaust system you described, you were very popular with the neighbors!
:)
I think the Sterling needs an Argus Pulse jet running right down through the middle.
This would keep you warm in the Canadian winters!
It would certainly get you some attention.
As a person who will normally go into the house when someone is even lighting a propane barbeque, this story terrifies me.
OOOH You’re on Facebook! [ runs to friend]
That picture is really stunning. Have you retouched the image in any way?
The light and color contrasts really jump out at you.
haha, i like the origional story hahahhaha…classic.
I’m still sad that they deleted you from BME and you had to giveu p BME.
I don’t have facebook. I dunno if I want one or not.
The picture of your car looks great. I think it would be awesome to be in a car on fire, as long as you where going really really fast.
I stopped going to BME and modblog i don’t know the whole story but i don’t care for people like that.
Love all the cars you have had! That one in particular is one of my favorites! Thats a crazy story about the fire, glad it turned out okay.
Was very happy to see you on facebook!
Take care.
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